The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

184 of 190 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsA redeeming message for trauma survivors
As a psychiatrist and author of "Lost in the Mirror: an Inside Look at Borderline Personality Disorder," I have dealt with many kinds of trauma and am always interested in new approaches to this difficult area. I found "Waking the Tiger" an engrossing approach to the problem of how trauma creates damaging and often enduring symptoms. Dr. Levine's concept of the "freeze...

3.0 out of 5 starsSo very promising, but...
I won't enter into a discussion, as some more experienced reviewers here rightly have, about whether Levine's techniques, approach and so-called solution (more on that below) are in general good or bad or even dangerous - I'm just not knowledgeable enough about the subject, although I do have some perhaps limited authority to write this, having agoraphobia and severe...

As a psychiatrist and author of "Lost in the Mirror: an Inside Look at Borderline Personality Disorder," I have dealt with many kinds of trauma and am always interested in new approaches to this difficult area. I found "Waking the Tiger" an engrossing approach to the problem of how trauma creates damaging and often enduring symptoms. Dr. Levine's concept of the "freeze response" in the face of overwhelming threat provides a missing link to symptoms such as dissociation that our old ideas of "fight or flight" fail to explain.Even more important to trauma survivors and their therapists is the redeeming message that immobilization in the face of threat is an automatic biological response that is not voluntarily chosen by the victim. The January 2003 issue of Clinical Psychiatry News reported that an overwhelming majority of victims of sexual assault describe a moderate or high level of paralysis occurring during the assault, consistent with Dr. Levine's observations.Dr. Levine also provides an astute portrayal of the nature of memory by acknowledging that memories are not literal recordings of events but a complex of images that are influenced by arousal, emotional context, and prior experience. Like a painting, memories may even transform over time as new experiences add layers of meaning to the images. While remembering the past can be an important aspect of therapy, appreciating the subjective quality of memories is crucial to integrating them appropriately into the healing process.

As someone who was directly impacted by the September 11 tragedy this book was recommended by my counsellor on my return to the UK. I could readily identify with the third scenario of 'freeze' and how this affects the body in addition to the mind. The book is well written and it is easy to grasp the concepts and apply them to real life situations with good examples being used throughout. Peter Levine also extends the book into the impact and management of trauma in Children and this is particularly relevant, given that I am also a father of three small rugrats. The structure of the book is not convoluted and addresses each section and sub section briefly but to the point. I would recommend the book to those who feel trapped in their own cycle and cannot see a clear way out.

Levine posits that human beings are animals, and ergo they must respond as such to traumatic events. He suggest that in the hurly burly of the modern world humans have intellecutalised and sanitised our animal natures and often rejected them. We have often blocked the natural responses that are built-in to us that would allow us to overcome trauma quite naturally, and are frequently doomed to struggle in an intellectual traumatic loop.

Levine calls this lost nature the 'felt sense' and describes a number of scenarios where individuals are blocked by trauma. He encourages the reader to learn about their felt sense, recognises that the freeze response is natural (and therefore not a product of folk who eg, 'asked for it', didn't try to escape), helps the reader try to locate their own in-built mechanisms, and complete the natural processes in us that have left us blocked, allowing victims to move on. This process does not require reliving the event, which is a relief. He also looks at the plasticity of memory, citing the (established) idea that the brain uses memory to resolve things in a very creative, specifically non-linear (A-to-B) way, storing and reworking memories to solve eg, trauma.

Levine encourages us to revisit the trauma in our imagination and get out of it, survive it, escape. Break the freeze response in our imagination. Break the loop. He does not suggest creating false memories, he just asks us to imagine escaping, surviving, get out of the trauma loop. I did just that and I revisited the trauma afterwards in a later session with my therapist... and was amazed to find I finally remembered what really happened next. I knew the truth and we explored that together, not the imagined escape which was had served its purpose. Over a period of weeks of work the trauma lost its hold on me.

I just wish Levine could write clearly! The scenarios are ludicrous, and the writing terrible. This is a shame because what he suggests makes a lot of sense. Don't expect the clarity I have tried to provide here - the book is desperately in need of a good editor and half of it chopped. I was recommended the book by my therapist (BAPC) since he realised I was being blocked by traumatic events. I persevered with it, gained a lot, and have moved on as a result.

Levine's ideas very much worked for me regarding 'felt sense', the plasticity and creativity of memory, and the freeze response. I (and many other professionals) think he's on to something. Persevere. It's worth it - but expect to be annoyed by the style and raise an eyebrow here and there.

I won't enter into a discussion, as some more experienced reviewers here rightly have, about whether Levine's techniques, approach and so-called solution (more on that below) are in general good or bad or even dangerous - I'm just not knowledgeable enough about the subject, although I do have some perhaps limited authority to write this, having agoraphobia and severe anxiety, and of course having read this book.

I agree with another reviewer or two here who said this book needs to be seriously edited down. It is pretty repetitive, which is a great shame, as I truly think the approach could have been helpful, certainly to me, and importantly much better than many CBT approaches and techniques which for me are just basically inadequate (indeed much of CBT irritates me beyond belief). Interestingly, Levine's theory links up well I think with the approach taken by a writer on agoraphobia and anxiety, Claire Weekes, who I really like, and who spoke about the body becoming sensitised as Levine speaks about hyper-arousal. The two are closely related concepts, if not the same. Okay, it's not rocket science, but I feel it is a key aspect of trauma, anxiety and panic which is virtually ignored by most CBT techniques. So, there are great similarities, on certain levels, between Levine's and Weekes' respective approaches. Perhaps that's why I ultimately give this book 3 stars instead of 2, because I recognised his theory's affinity to Weekes' theory.

However - and it's a big however - I really felt let down at the end. After trawling through 200 pages of often repetitive, but sometimes insightful and almost revolutionary or at least very intelligent ideas, I was thinking, well, thankfully now in the last part of the book he will provide a solution or two. For me, he didn't. He didn't really tell me what to do, not really. It was all very brief at the end, and pretty ill-defined and unconvincing (his solution, not the theory behind it).

It's a great shame, because I know, though my own experience, that he's got the right handle on these issues and conditions. Also, the book suffers from not really knowing its market position, so to speak. It is too unscientifically presented to be wholly relevant to practitioners and therapists; yet it is too dense and un-userfriendly for most readers with trauma, anxiety, etc. I'm tempted to read his most recent book (In an Unspoken Voice) to see if he finally developed a better way to present his theory and techniques, perhaps via a good editor/publisher and the maturing of his ideas over the years. But I fear it could be another exercise in trawling through over 200 pages to find little to help oneself.

But I must emphasise, for me, he says a lot more than many current therapists I've read, and has the right approach.

Has anyone else read Levine's In an Unspoken Voice? Is it any better (more concise, more practical?)

This book focuses on `shock trauma'; - the result of an isolated event or series of events with no consistent history of previous trauma. It also is written from the perspective that there is a community of family and friends - or caregivers - to support the traumatised through the healing process. Whilst it may help individuals who suffered long term childhood assault at the hands of their primary caregivers - that is not its focus or intent although the self help exercise in this book may help many traumatised people get into bodily sensations, feelings and thoughts. And that's really great and a positive aspect of the book. But whilst undoubtedly contributing to an understanding of PTSD and trauma (not the same thing), this book's fundamental flaw seems to be that it is written by someone who has a limited personal understanding of the impacts of long term sustained trauma without a normal and caringly supportive context.

Levine switches from an apparently factual style of writing to use of "I" and "we" throughout - so the reader never really knows the extent to which his own personal experience(s) of trauma influences what he puts forward as fact and influences his own interpretation of his client's stories. For example he claims one patient must have been "in denial" because she claimed not to have been frightened during a kidnapping a few years ago. What if that patient had been persistently assaulted at a very young age and lived a life of emotional numbness as a consequence? She truly may not have felt fear at the time of kidnapping in adulthood - having lived her whole life dissociated and devoid of feelings. Yet to say she is `in denial' of her fear is intensely disrespectful - she maybe had no fear resource available to her to deny. Unsurprisingly that patient did not return to him.

Phrases such as "I am endlessly fascinated by the subject of trauma" ... "we will continually be on edge" etc raise alarm bells as attempts to get the reader to over-identify with him and accept what he says. And in truth the freeze reaction certainly does exist in humans - but not always as the `feign death' response Levine postulates. Many adult PTSD sufferers will have experienced the conflicting mental urge to run at the same time as to turn and fight. This may lie behind some peoples' `freeze' reaction - but again appears outside Levine's experience. Eg he draws analogies with the response of prey animals to threats and to trauma - and applies them to humans. And this may be appropriate for children and adults who find themselves in a `helpless' state at the time of trauma. But what of the fact that humans are potentially vulnerable whilst young and then grow up to be the ultimate predator of all ? What happens to tiger cubs and lions who are turned on by their own parents ? It does happen - and some end up dissociated and unable to relate to other big cats as a consequence. And this book may not be of much help to those who have been through such an experience.

I am an osteopath and psychotherapist. This book interests me, as it seems to offer a focus or beginning, for an empirically grounded, integrative science of human healing. Levine and Frederick take us into the animal reality of our selves, from which healing stems, and teach us how to integrate our experiences into our rational human conciousness.Many schools of healing attempt this in various ways. The novelty and importance of their approach lie in its basis in animal behaviour and physiology, and a conviction that chronic dis-ease results from unresolved trauma. In other words that healing fundamentally requires the reintegration, re-owning, of our animal selves. This has profound implications, on many levels,not least that of planetary healing, which affects all of us.

I found the book informative and easy to digest, it lived up to my expectations to satisfy my curiosity as to why the author said what he said and what was his theory about trauma, which all of us live through at some time in our lives, the book shows how even an insignificant event, or a small car crash can have an effect on the body, though we would think nothing of it at the time as was the case with my experience of a car crash.So, yes I would recommend this book to all therapists, and doctors, your insight may well help your patients/clients down the line.Glad I read it for sure.I did not give it the full five stars as one can never be too sure about anything you read on these sort of subjects, my mind is always open and I don't perse believe everything to the letter, always learning more, and in this sense this book also added to my general knowledge of how the mind affects the body, and how trauma can affect health.

This is a fantastic book because it clarifies what we go through during trauma and how we can continue the process instead of stopping it. Once we stop it, as we humans like to do, stop the emotions, we stop the process of healing. The authors help us to understand that we can release energy that otherwise gets "stuck" within us and benefit from that release. Letting go, for some of us, is a good lesson for life.